The creativity paradox in marketing: Where did all the fun go?

When you hear the word "marketing," what do you imagine? Maybe a room full of colorful minds, bouncing off fresh ideas to sell a product or service. Bright visuals, catchy slogans, and innovative campaigns—that’s the dream, right? But here’s the twist: if you ask any marketer whether their job is just about "coming up with creative ideas all day," they’ll likely have to resist the urge to laugh at you.

The reality is that while we marketers need to have a creative side, it's only about 20% of what we actually do. Surprised? Well, what about the other 80%? That’s where the paradox kicks in. It’s not all brainstorming sessions and lightbulb moments. Instead, we spend most of our time buried in project management, coordinating tasks, juggling timelines, and, of course, attending endless meetings. Who knew that marketing had so much in common with herding cats?

So, where does that leave creativity? Once considered the heart of marketing, creativity has somehow become the “nice to have” accessory of the profession—like a flashy watch you wear to impress, but not something you rely on to tell the time. Sure, it’s attractive, but is it really what moves the needle?

And here comes the kicker: the overwhelming amount of project management and administrative tasks often stifles our ability to be creative. We all know that mental fatigue is the ultimate creativity killer. How can we come up with groundbreaking ideas when we’re drowning in a sea of Gantt charts, to-do lists, and endless email threads? It’s ironic, isn’t it? The very thing that should set us apart—our creative spark—is being dimmed by the grind of managing projects.

Yet, here’s where the paradox becomes even more twisted. Marketers do remain creative—just not in the way you might expect. We’ve had to channel our creativity into finding ways to gain efficiency, doing more with the same amount of time, and making sure that everything runs like a well-oiled machine. Creativity hasn’t disappeared; it’s just shifted gears. Instead of coming up with the next big campaign idea, we’re using our creative energy to improve processes, optimize systems, and generally keep the wheels of business turning smoothly.

And you know what? That’s not necessarily a bad thing for business. Marketing creativity, as it is viewed today, may be the last thing that delivers consistent results. It’s the processes and systems—the ones we’ve so cleverly optimized—that really drive success. So, is this new way of using up our creativity good for business? Probably.

But here’s the million-dollar question: did we really sign up for this when we imagined a career in marketing? Isn’t there just a tiny part of you that misses the days when creativity was king, and project management was someone else’s problem? Ah, the irony of it all.